UPDATE: Attorneys spar before state high court over whether death records are public documents | VIDEO

Stephen Key, executive director and general counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association, speaks on a court case involving the Courier & Press seeking death records to be made public.

INDIANAPOLIS - An attorney for the Evansville Courier & Press argued Thursday before the Indiana Supreme Court that cause of death information listed on death certificates should be made available to the public.

However, an attorney for the Vanderburgh County Health Department argued before the state's high court the release of cause of death information is limited to individuals with direct interest in the matter, such as spouses and immediate relatives.

The basis of the dispute surrounds competing state laws concerning death records and what information is required to be publicly available.

On Thursday, attorneys on both sides of the litigation fielded questions from the justices on how the county health department produces death certificates, how the information is maintained and what information the Courier & Press wants to access.

County health departments submit information on deaths to the state through an electronic death registry system. A law that went into effect in 2011 requires direct interest in the matter to access information off the registry. County attorney Joseph Harrison Jr. told the court the county maintains death certificates on the statewide system and releases them to individuals meeting the direct interest requirement.

Pat Shoulders, the attorney representing the newspaper and Pike County resident Rita Ward who filed a public access complaint when she was denied cause of death information, argued the statewide registry is separate from the health department's statutory responsibility to maintain death certificates and release them to the public.

Shoulders argued the information the county sends to the statewide registry and the death certificate prepared by the last attending physician are two different documents.

Shoulders said the health department has the duty to download and print out the information from the registry, and that the information is public record.

"That's really what you're after, right," Justice Mark Massa said of the cause of death information. "You're not after the fine piece of sheepskin, you're after the information that's in the computer and you want them to give it to you."

Shoulders responded, "We want the cause of death the statue provides that they shall retain."

However, Harrison said the county compiles a permanent record of deaths for public release that lists information such as name, age and place of death. Harrison said it's clear the Indiana General Assembly didn't want cause of death information made available to the general public.

"I think what the Legislature intended you had to meet these certain requirements to get a death certificate," Harrison said.

Chief Justice Brent Dickson and Justice Robert Rucker questioned if the intent of showing direct interest for the state registry was to not burden the state health department to disclose the cause of death to the general public because the information could be made available at the local level.

In response, Harrison reiterated the requirement of direct interest exists.

A representative from Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller's office argued Thursday before the court that cause of death information is public record.

"We are always sensitive to Hoosiers' privacy concerns, but the statute calls for this basic document, setting forth the decedent's name, age and cause of death, to be a public record accessible at the county level. In keeping with the principles of transparency and accountability, we ask merely for a return to what had been the long-standing practice of making the cause of death in death certificates promptly available to the public who has the right to that information," Zoeller said in a prepared statement.

Harrison declined to comment after the hearing.

Shoulders said the outcome of Thursday's oral arguments can't be predicted. The court took the case under advisement and will issue its decision at a later date.

"I think the court was well prepared and very attentive," Shoulders said.

The Vanderburgh Circuit Court and the Indiana Court of Appeals both ruled the health department did not have to make cause of death information available to the public.

The court case stems from a 2012 lawsuit filed by the Courier & Press and Ward against the health department to gain release of the information. The newspaper and Ward argue that death certificates are public records under Indiana's Access to Public Records Act.

The issue came to a head after the health department, which had provided cause of death information to the Courier & Press for publication on its public records page, abruptly stopped releasing the cause of death in May 2012.

Ward, of Winslow, Indiana, argued the information should be released because of the public health implications the information might reveal.

When Ward requested the information from the health department, a county attorney told her state law limits access to records with cause of death information to individuals with a direct interest in the matter. After the records were denied, Ward petitioned the Indiana Public Access Counselor and received a nonbinding opinion in her favor. The Courier & Press then submitted a new request for cause of death information to the health department but was still denied.

Then-Public Access Counselor Joseph Hoage ruled the requirement for direct interest pertained only to the state's electronic death registration system, which was created by a state law that went into effect in 2011. Hoage said state law still required health departments to maintain records of death certificates filed by physicians and release them to the public.